The largest writers of excess and surplus lines insurance in the U.S. experienced year-over-year growth in direct premiums written in the first quarter, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.

AIG emerges as the largest E&S writer in Q1

American International Group Inc. continued to lead the E&S insurance market in terms of direct premiums written, ending the first quarter with about 6% market share.

AIG logged a 15.2% premium growth during the period and generated the biggest direct premiums written among the top E&S underwriters at $942.1 million. In the first quarters of 2021 and 2020, the insurer had also topped the E&S rankings in terms of direct premiums written.

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Markel Corp. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. were the second- and third-largest E&S underwriters, respectively, in terms of direct premiums written in the first quarter.

Markel logged $923.4 million in direct premiums written following a year-over-year premium growth of 15.5%. However, of the top three E&S writers, Berkshire Hathaway recorded the highest premium growth at 20.5%, generating $914.5 million in direct premiums written during the quarter.

Among the top 10 E&S insurers, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. posted the largest year-over-year premium growth in the first quarter with 28.5%, followed by Alleghany Corp. with 26.0%.

With $803.4 million in direct premiums written, Fairfax Financial finished the first quarter holding about 5% of the market. Alleghany, which recorded $416.0 million of direct premiums written, had about a 3% market share during the period.

E&S direct premiums written increase

Overall, the E&S insurance business saw a 26.2% growth in direct premiums written in the first quarter, the largest year-over-year increase in a first quarter since at least 2018.

The business logged $16.33 billion in direct premiums written during the quarter, compared with $12.94 billion in the first quarter of 2021.